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Supersized molecules stretch a thousand times further than usual

THE microscopic world just got bigger. By coaxing two puffed-up atoms into a delicate do-si-do, Heiner Saßmannshausen and Johannes Deiglmayr, both at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, have made a two-atom molecule that is 1000 times bigger than normal.

The pair hit two caesium atoms with rapid pulses of laser light. This turned them into Rydberg atoms, in which the electrons are in high-energy states and so orbit further away from the positively-charged nucleus.

Opposites attract, so a molecule formed when the nucleus of one atom bonded with the negative electrons of the other. This happened even when the atoms were a micrometre apart (Physical Review Letters, doi.org/bpsv).

Such supersized molecules could have a part to play in building logic gates for future quantum computers.

This article appeared in print under the headline “Colossal molecule made with lasers”